Curse of Strahd: Worst Possible Party ?

[Laserlight]

Please Do Not Post Spoilers
We'll be starting CoS soon, and we want to have an preplanned party. But anyone can ask "what are the optimal characters", so let's turn that around. What is the worst 5 man party for CoS? Assume we're starting at L3 and are each reasonably optimized for a normal setting, but weren't expecting to go to Barovia. What races just don't fit the setting? What classes would struggle, either mechanically or due to expected RP issues?

[EvilAnagram]

Well, the worst-designed parties for this campaign would have weak Wisdom saves, little in the way of healing, and no access to Lesser or Greater Restoration.

Rogues are probably a little worse off here than Fighters, but Berserkers actually have a leg up. Warlocks and Sorcerers are probably the worst full casters here (in before some idiot says, "like always"), although Celestial and Divine would be solid, offensively. Moon Druids are pretty awful compared to Land.

[Joe the Rat]

Not having a Cleric (using druids / rangers for magiheals), or at least not something in the Life/Light/Grave vein.
No Paladin.
Oh yeah - Sorcerers, not Wizards or Warlocks. Avoid the Wisdom Save Proficiency!

Warlocks are an interesting one - Say a Long Death Warlock. You'd actually be too comfortable here.

No Religion and /or Arcana proficiency, depending on how you handle undead knowledge
No social skill "experts"

That should get you fairly out-of-water.

[Longman]

We had:

Wizard (Diviner)
Paladin
Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Bard

Asses handed to us.

[Avonar]

We had:

Wizard (Diviner)
Paladin
Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Bard

Asses handed to us.

Weird. We had:

Wizard (Evoker)
Paladin (Ancients)
Bard (Lore)
Rogue (Inquisitive)

Worked out quite well.

[PhantasyPen]

I remember having:

Fighter (Battlemaster)
Wizard (Illusionist)
Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Cleric (Life)
Cleric (Life?)
Sorcerer/Warlock

Strahd was perma-killed in one round.

[Longman]

Weird. We had:

Wizard (Evoker)
Paladin (Ancients)
Bard (Lore)
Rogue (Inquisitive)

Worked out quite well.

I think our Wizard (diviner) was the weak link. Evoker a much better choice.

Also the fact that the bard and rogue players kept on getting into frontline combat and then failing to use any kind of disengage, cunning action, uncanny dodge etc to get out of it again. But that's just those players.

[Laserlight]

I'm thinking about proposing the Lollipop Guild Strike Force: five gnome bards.

[Waterdeep Merch]

My group consisted of-
V. Human Vengeance Paladin (dex sword and board)
High Elf Eldritch Knight Fighter (archer)
Mountain Dwarf Abjuration Wizard
Wood Elf Sun Soul Monk
V. Human War Cleric

Of those, the wizard wasn't much help, though I think that's more due to the player. The monk kind of sucked, which I think was about 50/50 the player and the subclass not really being great, despite what you might think here.

The paladin, archer, and cleric practically 3-manned the whole campaign. So those three are out if you're looking for crap.

If we're still trying to build a balanced party that might otherwise be fine in other modules, I'd go with- valor bard, open hand monk, bear totem barbarian, draconic sorcerer, arcane trickster rogue. They'll stumble once the weirder stuff happens.

[Coidzor]

Animal people would probably be assumed to be werewolf relatives and monsters and cause some pitchfork mobs or the towns with walls and gates to refuse entry for a fair amount of time. I think.

Kobolds, tabaxi, tortles, aarakocra... Especially weird tieflings maybe. Lupins if the DM is using any homebrew for them.

Least effective... A party trained only in Animal Handling and History. Maybe Survival. A party that lacks Arcana, Religion, Perception, Investigation, Persuasion, and Insight.

Necromancer Wizards for class, with all their spells tied up in undead that don't do much and can't get in to town and probably have some other issue. And mostly spells known that undead are immune to or resist.


Yeah. It took a while, but I have taught our ranger archer that "behind the party, shooting from cover" works much better than "ahead of the party and around the corner."

I'm thinking about proposing the Lollipop Guild Strike Force: five gnome bards.

Depends on if gnomes can be mistaken for children, I think.

[EvilAnagram]

I remember having:

Fighter (Battlemaster)
Wizard (Illusionist)
Rogue (Arcane Trickster)
Cleric (Life)
Cleric (Life?)
Sorcerer/Warlock

Strahd was perma-killed in one round.
We had eight PCs, so the DM gave Strahd four vampire underlings, a shield guardian, and Kraven Edge. It was a fun time.

[Sception]

Oathbreaker paladin from the DMG. At level 7 you get this great ability that adds your cha to your melee attacks. But it also adds your cha to the melee attacks of all fiends and undead, whether friendly or enemy, within 10 feet of you. Exactly what you want your party paladin to be carrying around when you're going up against a powerful vampire lord & their various nefarious servants. :p

It's great, because you're still a paladin, you've still got that saving throw aura, so your party wants to bunch up to you, but doing so means taking supernaturally empowered extra damage from undead beatsticks. Fun times!

Dip a level or two of hexblade for cha to melee attacks so you can really max out those auras.

[Longman]

I'm thinking about proposing the Lollipop Guild Strike Force: five gnome bards.

At least they would all be extremely inspired when they died.

[Blacky the Blackball]

We've currently got:

Hill Dwarf Life Cleric
Lightfoot Halfling Paladin of Devotion
Tiefling Wild Mage Sorcerer
Hill Dwarf Battle Master Fighter
High Elf Wizard (Conjurer)

We seem to be doing okay (we started at first level, we've now just hit eighth) although we've had to nope out of a couple of places where we got out of our depth; even at seventh level (but I won't spoil where it was that we had to run from).

Our biggest problem so far has been the lack of a druid, ranger, or anyone with the outlander background. Hence we had real trouble foraging/hunting for enough food to stay alive until I (the paladin) took Magic Initiate as my 4th level ASI to get hold of the Goodberry spell. We've pretty much exclusively lived off Goodberries since then (we don't use the spell for healing; we just use my once-per-long-rest casting so that we can eat one each for breakfast because it's enough to feed us for the day).

[SociopathFriend]

I dunno about 'worst' party but our setup was fairly bad as even the players didn't know we were going to Strahd's realm. We had been almost entirely TPK'd in Princes of Apocalypse and the DM had us make new characters for next week. Our characters were made with that campaign in mind- which was why it went fairly badly once the gypsy walked into the bar and invited us through the Mist.

We had:
Half-Elf Vengeance Paladin
Dwarf Spirit Totem Barbarian
Dwarf Chaos Magic Sorcerer (only Apocalypse survivor)
Half-Orc Battlemaster Fighter

Virtually no healing potential, virtually no investigative potential, few wisdom saves, very little magical knowledge, and almost no face of the party.
The Paladin was rocking a 20 Charisma mind you, he just didn't take initiative often enough for NPCs. More often than not the Barbarian was the one talking to people- did I mention the Barbarian was Chaotic Evil, enjoyed human flesh, was more than likely taking orders from demons disguised as Druids, and was a Werewolf?

The Shadows in particular were bad since the DM didn't miss once with them, our strength was being gutted hardcore and we had no way of removing it.
The complete inability to remove curses also really became an issue when Werewolves came around. The Barbarian rolled with it so he had control. The Paladin, of course, fought against it and murdered a family.

Long story short: need healing measures, and someone who can talk to people.
From a Roleplaying POV you ideally want at least one calm person who won't jump at the DM doing something like, "A gust of wind goes across your neck." If everyone is gung-ho Rambo-ing the campaign- expect death. Frequent and ugly death.

[Finback]

I cannot say if this *would* be the worst without trying, but

*gnome berserker barbarian
* half-orc bard of whispers
* high elf cleric of the forge
* aarakocra necromancer
* dragonborn inquisitive rogue

Their team name shall be the Undependables.

[Laserlight]

Depends on if gnomes can be mistaken for children, I think.

The Lollipop Guild from the Wizard of Oz. They won't be mistaken for children; of course, they probably won't be mistaken for musicians either.

[Laserlight]

Oathbreaker paladin from the DMG....
It's great, because you're still a paladin, you've still got that saving throw aura, so your party wants to bunch up to you, but doing so means taking supernaturally empowered extra damage from undead beatsticks. Fun times!

Indeed. I'll propose this right now, while they're distracted by XGtE. :-)

[Glorthindel]

From a roleplaying viewpoint (rather than a mechanics one), any monsterous (I include Tieflings and Dragonborn here) race would be a problem, and class-wise, warlocks and necromancers would be terrible. Barovia is very superstition and isolated, and pitchforks and bonfires would be very quickly in such characters futures.

[Corsair14]

A party of kender and tinker gnomes consisting of illusionist, barbarian, fighter, paladin.

[greenstone]

The module works best with generally caring characters, so any party of murderhobos and sociopaths and loners is going to be the worst.

Someone who doesn't care about the inhabitants of Barovia is going to have a pretty boring time there. Additionally, if they don't start with a good spirit that Strahd can break then he won't be interested in interacting with them at all (toys that are already broken are no fun). So, what have you got left? Wander in the cold and get killed by werewolves.

[Laserlight]

The module works best with generally caring characters, so any party of murderhobos and sociopaths and loners is going to be the worst.

Someone who doesn't care about the inhabitants of Barovia is going to have a pretty boring time there. Additionally, if they don't start with a good spirit that Strahd can break then he won't be interested in interacting with them at all (toys that are already broken are no fun). So, what have you got left? Wander in the cold and get killed by werewolves.

We had a discussion earlier today about possibly running a drow priestess and her four consorts, but I think saner heads have prevailed.

[Mikal]

Worst party?

4 TWF champion fighters all with 8 wisdom.

[Temperjoke]

Worst party candidates:
1. A party with no healers. CoS can be pretty nasty, and frankly, I'm of the opinion that potions are just not enough in this campaign, you need someone with active healing capabilities.
2. A party of characters that widely deviate from the human template. The more monstrous you look, the harder time you're going to have among the suspicious residents of Barovia.

Surprisingly, I actually think that Necromancer Wizards would do well, as long as they don't try and be minion-mancers. I mean, if you survive to level 14, you can take control of a large portion of the enemies in the campaign. In the cities, if you don't flaunt your specialty, the citizens would have no extra reason to be hostile to you. It's not like they aren't used to the smell of death, after all.

[Coidzor]

We had a discussion earlier today about possibly running a drow priestess and her four consorts, but I think saner heads have prevailed.

Well... Considering that a not insignificant portion of the population of Barovia either are purple or look purple due to the omnipresent mist and constant dramatic lighting set to horror, they might just mistake you for a Dusk Elf who doesn't have the sense to put on a coat instead of catching cold.

It'd definitely be too wholesomely poly for at least several entities.

[mer.c]

I actually think that Necromancer Wizards would do well, as long as they don't try and be minion-mancers. I mean, if you survive to level 14, you can take control of a large portion of the enemies in the campaign. In the cities, if you don't flaunt your specialty, the citizens would have no extra reason to be hostile to you. It's not like they aren't used to the smell of death, after all.

IIRC, it’s very, very unlikely that you’ll get to 14 in CoS.

[Temperjoke]

IIRC, it’s very, very unlikely that you’ll get to 14 in CoS.

Yeah, it's intended to be 1-10, but there are a lot of exploration options and side adventures within it that can level you beyond the regular levels, so it just depends on the campaign. Of course, pushing into the extra stuff puts you at a bigger risk of dying.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Yeah, it's intended to be 1-10, but there are a lot of exploration options and side adventures within it that can level you beyond the regular levels, so it just depends on the campaign. Of course, pushing into the extra stuff puts you at a bigger risk of dying.

My 5-player group completed every single side quest in CoS and ran through two additional adventures and ended the game at level 8-9. Though to be fair, they did very little exploring of Ravenloft itself overall.

See, they got that luck blade in the dungeon after only a bit of exploration, and the party cleric had the cheekiest and best wish I've ever heard in one of these modules.

"I wish I knew Castle Ravenloft as well as Strahd does."

So I granted that wish by unfolding the map and handing it to him. From there they blitzed.